so much to say, too lazy to express

Today with categories.
#Cambridge/London

Wanted to meet Maria (who's staying as an au-pair in London right now) but since she was free for the evening only and I didn't want to spend a day in London again I decided to go to Cambridge. Did a walking tour (how surprising! =D), had a glimpse into the Fitzwilliam Museum, wrote a postcard and - whoosh, caught the train to London. Here three impressions of Cambridge (I now visited both University Cities! Yay *.*)

 The Cam. Actually, it's quite obvious why the city is called Cambridge ^^

 a college. forgot which one =D

King's College!

Then I met Maria (was ein Wiedersehen =D), we had a beer, a walk around and very good talks :) Caught the train back to Darlington and fell asleep in my bed around 2.15am after a 20 hour-day!

#tasks

My bigger and smaller projects here on Hazel Brow: creosoting the inside of the field shelter, clearing out the office, doing the visitor centre's paperwork, weeding a large horseshoe-shaped flowerbed, feeding&mucking out a quantity of animals (nearly) every morning, serving visitors in the tearoom for 1 1/2 days, helping Cath with farm tours, sheep races etc., doing the social media stuff of Hazel Brow (which I'll continue doing when I'm back in Germany!), a big muck out I did together with Issey (Cath's niece; took us roughly 20 wheelbarrows to empty the goat pen entirely). Apart from these activities I did a lot more and all in all I can truly say: I achieved what I aimed to get: (ooh, double colons, the tension's mounting  =D) an insight into the life on England's countryside.

#eating

I don't know who/how often/where I told THAT but here's the inevitable truth: Cath is the master of cooking and baking. Even if she'd never heard of the recipe before the result was always stunning! I cooked once (Pfannkuchen ^^', das einzige deutsche Gericht, dass mir zu "typisch deutsch" eingefallen ist). Said enough =D I enjoyed every single meal; I'm looking forward to try all that myself (und ihr werdet meine Versuchskaninchen sein. Muhaha.).

#other people leaving

Lisa took her plane to Madrid today, Pia is going to China tomorrow (Pia's blog: http://piasara2liuku.jimdo.com/blog/pia/). I'll miss you!

#last day

Today, I worked in the tearoom in the visitor centre and did the animals for the last time. We're having tea in a few minutes and Cath suggested to go to Tan Hill Pub tonight, the highest pub in England :) Packing is half done, I'm pretty sure that the backpack's zip won't close properly. Planned arrival at Colchester Station tomorrow: around 2.30pm.

CU soon, love,

Katrin

[day 39]

I think we're having green gazpacho tonight

Hey there!
Had a 2 hour walk to Reeth today (impressions can be seen on facebook as profile/cover photos) to visit Reeth Show, an annual agricultural show that had its 100th birthday this year. There are competitions in all sorts of disciplines:
- bakery
- art (with food, knitted stuff, photography, painting etc.)
- craftsmanship (hiking poles, sheperd's crooks etc.)
- agricultural products such as vegetables, wool, hay etc.
- best sheep/poultry/horse/pony breeds (in different classes)
- nicest vehicles drawn by horses
- some curiosities, mostly for kids ;) -> best hand writing, nicest painted picture etc.
- fell racing in all age groups (the fells are the hills so some sort of a test of stamina, for both males and females, mainly carried out in the Dales as well as in the Lake District which is Cumbria)
In addition to that they presented:
- a tractor parade
- a Zetland Hunt display. Two men wearing hunting red coats on very well-behaved and -trained British hunt horses with a pack of hounds, Foxhounds to be exact, and the host with the microphone said something about 16 1/2 couples. Cath and I are musing about what he might have meant with that, we suppose he was referring to the dogs but we're not sure and google doesn't speak to us... Anyway, impressive thing those hunting displays! Oh, one information for all animals' rights activists out there: hunting was banned in Scotland in 2002, in England and Wales in 2004. But still it's lovely to watch, very majestic horses, the sound of the horn that keeps the hounds together, the hounds themselves! Actually, this hunting thing is quite interesting and very traditional in England, so why not take an hour or so and google it? ;)

I have just three days left here on one of which I'm in Cambridge for the day and in London for the evening (meeting Maria! :)). Time went by so fast and it was a lovely time I enjoyed a lot.

Lots of Love,
Katrin

[day 36]

Newcastle!

The blogger account is bonkers so I'm using this wonderful send-an-e-mail-to-the-blog thing :)
Some photos from my day trip to Newcastle!
1. Grey's Monument marks the centre of modern Newcastle
2. Replication of a stage prop
3. Grainger Market
4. view on Tyne Bridge (with Olympic rings attached) from Millenium Bridge
5. :D

Newcastle's the first city I had to explore myself (guided walking tour started too early) but that was a welcome variation. Was a bit disappointed by the art gallery and the museum I visited; anyway, the walks I did were interesting and I took more photos than in York.
When I arrived back in Darlington I had to wait 2 hours for Cath, she'd been to somewhere west of Manchester with her daughter and they came back with a huge delay. Was quite boring, I just had my music (couldn't even wander around Darlington, it was late so all shops etc were closed).

I started to creosote the field shelter which I'll finish within the next few days. Unfortunately, the weather up here is very changeable, rain, sun, warm, cold, morning fog.
On Wednesday, I have another day off and I'll go to the next village Reeth where they're having a show (http://www.reethshow.co.uk/); on next Friday I'll make use of the next to last travel day on my Interrail-Ticket and on next Sunday I'll use the last one to get to my last station here in the UK: the farm of the Morgan's near Colchester.

So far, so good!
Lots of Love,
Katrin

[day 33]